Media General’s headquarters on East Franklin Street. (Photo by Michael Schwartz)
A downtown TV station owner has bulked up its fall lineup.
Media General on Tuesday completed its merger with Nashville-based New Young Broadcasting, a deal that adds 12 TV stations to the Richmond firm’s fold, including, locally, WRIC Channel 8.
The combined companies now own 31 stations and will continue to operate under the Media General name and out of its headquarters on East Franklin Street. Its stations are spread across 28 states.
As part of the all-stock deal, Young shareholders now own a majority stake of Media General. The deal with Young was made possible in part by Media General changing its stock structure and chipping away at the power held by the family of longtime company chairman J. Stewart Bryan III.
Media General chief executive George Mahoney will lead the combined companies.
The deal is the latest major step in the company’s transformation from a newspaper-centric media firm to a more narrowly focused TV-based company. The first step in that direction came in summer 2012, when Media General sold its newspaper operations, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch, to a division of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
Media General’s headquarters on East Franklin Street. (Photo by Michael Schwartz)
A downtown TV station owner has bulked up its fall lineup.
Media General on Tuesday completed its merger with Nashville-based New Young Broadcasting, a deal that adds 12 TV stations to the Richmond firm’s fold, including, locally, WRIC Channel 8.
The combined companies now own 31 stations and will continue to operate under the Media General name and out of its headquarters on East Franklin Street. Its stations are spread across 28 states.
As part of the all-stock deal, Young shareholders now own a majority stake of Media General. The deal with Young was made possible in part by Media General changing its stock structure and chipping away at the power held by the family of longtime company chairman J. Stewart Bryan III.
Media General chief executive George Mahoney will lead the combined companies.
The deal is the latest major step in the company’s transformation from a newspaper-centric media firm to a more narrowly focused TV-based company. The first step in that direction came in summer 2012, when Media General sold its newspaper operations, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch, to a division of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.